Comments Off on The E-Fan X jet heralds an electric passenger plane revolution

The E-Fan X is a hybrid-electric jet plane that may herald a new era of electric power in transportation . Designed by a consortium that includes Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens, the E-Fan X will offer partially electric powered flights that are cheaper, quieter, and more sustainable. “Aviation has been the last frontier in the electrification of transport, and slow to catch up,” said Rolls-Royce chief technology officer Paul Stein, according to the Guardian. “This will be a new era of aviation.” This breakthrough in energy-transportation technology, which may encourage the growth of short-distance, small-to-medium passenger capacity aircraft, could change how airports are structured and incorporated into urban design . While the E-Fan X will be a major step forward for electric planes , it will fly on a hybrid engine because purely electric passenger flight is beyond current technological limits. “Aviation has always eluded electrification largely because of the size and weight of components involved,” said Stein, according to the Guardian . “But technology has moved on apace. Electrification is now poised to make a significant impact.” In light of these advances in the field, there is likely to be growth in three kinds of electric planes. Related: Boeing to reveal mysterious space plane of the future The first group includes air taxis, such as Uber Elevate , which are capable of transporting small numbers of people over relatively short distances. These would most likely be used to avoid urban congestion on the ground if one needs to cross a city . The second group includes regional jets, such as the E-Fan X. “Our target end game is a fixed wing, regional hybrid design,” said Stein. The third group includes long-distance commercial jets, which are much less developed under current technology. However, battery technology has made great leaps and bounds in recent years, so perhaps it may not be as faraway as we think. Via the Guardian Images via Airbus

China is getting in on the solar road -building action. A one-kilometer stretch of solar highway developed by Qilu Transportation Development Group just opened for testing near Jinan, the capital city of China’s Shandong Province. According to Quartz the expressway has three layers: the solar panels rest in the middle, with insulation below and transparent concrete on top. Solar panels sprawl across 5,875 square meters, or around 63,238 square feet, covering two lanes and one emergency lane in China’s new solar road now open for traffic. These panels can generate one million kilowatt-hours of clean power every year – that’s enough to meet the daily needs of roughly 800 households, according to Xinhua . Project designer Zhang Hongchao, in an interview with CCTV cited by Quartz, said the road can handle 10 times more pressure than normal asphalt roads. Related: France officially opens world’s first solar panel road Qilu Transportation Development Group chairman Xu Chunfu told Xinhua, “The project will save the space for building solar farms and shorten the transmission distance.” The electricity generated by the solar road could go towards powering street lights, a snow-melting system, surveillance cameras, signboards, and toll gate facilities, with excess energy sent to the state grid. The plan is for the clean power to one day also charge electric vehicles . Xu did not disclose the project’s cost to Xinhua, but did claim it was half of similar projects in other countries, saying, “With the development of solar power in China, the cost can be further reduced.” Zhang said the road cost about 3,000 yuan, or $458, per square meter, and as that is more than regular streets, it may take some time for the project to expand. The Qilu Transportation Development Group described the road as the “world’s first freeway photovoltaic pavement experiment section.” There are other solar roadways throughout the world – around a year ago France opened a one kilometer-long solar panel road in Tourouvre-au-Perche. Via Xinhua , Quartz , and Qilu Transportation Development Group Images via Qilu Transportation Development Group

Comments Off on Obama: Paris COP21 talks are the turning point in climate change threat

The COP21 climate change conference kicked off today in Paris with an impassioned rallying cry from President Barack Obama. Obama told world leaders that the UN climate conference could be a “turning point” for the planet on climate change , an issue that he described earlier this year as the “defining threat of this century.” Obama pledged that the U.S., which he says is partly to blame for climate change, would take a lead in fixing the perceived problems and reduce emissions to 26 to 28% below 2005 levels within 10 years. Read the rest of Obama: Paris COP21 talks are the turning point in climate change threat

Comments Off on Could this new spinal implant someday help people with paralysis walk?

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) have made a breakthrough that could someday help paralyzed people walk, run, or even dance again. After years of research, the team has developed e-Dura, a flexible material that allows an implant to be placed on the actual spinal cord without causing damage to the nerve tissue. Read the rest of Could this new spinal implant someday help people with paralysis walk? Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: breakthrough , discovery , helping people , learning to walk , medical advancements , medical technology , Medicine , mobility , paralysis , paralyzed , prosthesis , rehab , research , scientists , spinal , spinal cord , spinal implant , spinal injury

image via American Museum of Natural History Last week, EarthTechling let us know that a 13-year-old came up with a solar breakthrough, noticing that using the Fibonacci sequence to organize solar cells could boost efficiency. The news story was big on TreeHugger, as well as on dozens of other news outlets around the nation. Everyone was excited for a teen to do such an interesting science project, and to be recognized with a Young Naturalist award by the American Museum of Natural History. However, the teen’s glory is short lived — a science blog has debunked the project. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

Given that Robert Llewellyn, the former star of the cult comedy Red Dwarf, is now creating the popular online electric car series Fully Charged , and is raving about his own solar-powered car charging set up , British sci-fi has already contributed to a greener world. But now comes news that the Timelord himself is taking some very concrete steps to save the planet (as if he hasn’t saved it a few times already). Business Green reports that

Comments Off on Researchers Make Breakthrough in Wireless In-Road EV Charging

Utah State University researchers have made a breakthrough in the quest to make in-road electric vehicle chargers practical for the real world, managing to wirelessly transmit 5 kilowatts of electricity across a 10-inch gap with 90% efficiency. That’s huge for a technology that has struggled to gain traction because of inefficiencies and difficulties bridging enough of a gap to make inductive chargers useful in highways, where chargers are a significant distance away from car batteries and need to deliver large amounts of electricity in a short period of time. Read the rest of Researchers Make Breakthrough in Wireless In-Road EV Charging Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | digg Post tags: alternative transportation , breakthrough , electric car , electric vehicle , green automotive design , green transportation , in-road vehicle charger , inductive charger , inductive charging breakthrough , USU , Utah State University , vehicle charging breakthrough , world’s first

Comments Off on Microorganism Breakthrough Could Make Methane Production More Efficient

A team from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst have discovered a new cooperative behavior in anaerobic bacteria known as “interspecies electron transfer”Â that they believe could be used towards changing the global carbon cycle and how we understand bioenergy. In their research, the UMass team discovered that two different species of microorganisms were able to cooperate to consume food at a faster rate than they would be able to on their own. And since consumption of such matter could lead to the production of natural gases such as methane and isÂ an increasingly popular method for producing natural gas, the finding could be a breakthrough for the renewable energy.